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Monty Python shows aim for Jagger-like energy jolt

Jill Lawless Associated Press

Posted:
06/30/2014 08:52:58 AM CDT

Updated:
06/30/2014 10:54:00 AM CDT

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From left, Eric Idle, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and Terry Jones of the comedy group Monty Python pose for photographers during a photo call in London Monday, June 30, 2014, to promote their reunion for a series of concerts. The group had its first big success with the Monty Python's Flying Circus TV show, which ran from 1969 until 1974, winning fans around the world with its bizarre sketches. (Photo by John Phillips Invision/AP Images)

It turns out the Stones singer is one of Monty Python's many famous fans. Jagger has filmed a promo clip for the show, in which he asks wryly why audiences would want to watch a "bunch of wrinkly old men trying to relive their youth."

It has been 40 years since "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was on television, but the anarchic troupe remains a phenomenon.

World-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking — another Python aficionado — is due to make a guest appearance in the show. Journalists at Monday's news conference came from Britain, the U.S., Canada, Australia and beyond. A Spaniard asked about the Spanish Inquisition sketch; a Finn wanted to know "How do you feel about Finland?"

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(Answer: Monty Python wrote a song about the Nordic nation. It's in the show).

Eric Idle, who has done much of the work assembling the evening, said fans can expect old favorites, back-catalog gems and a few new twists.

"Our motto has been: leave them wanting less," he said.

As well as Idle, Palin, Gilliam, John Cleese and Terry Jones, the show features a dance troupe, singing lumberjacks, Spam-loving Vikings, a dead parrot and much more. It is, unsurprisingly, a bit naughty.

"I'm happy and proud to say it's actually rather filthy," Idle said.

The troupe last performed together at the Hollywood Bowl in 1980. Times, and the Pythons, have changed since then.

"All the audience was smoking marijuana," said Jones. "When John and I went into the audience we came out pretty high."

Now, said Palin, "we've got some Viagra in our dressing room."

Each member of the group has adopted his own style of preparation for the 10-night stand, which ends July 20 with a show beamed to 1,800 movie theaters around the world.

"I've not been drinking for a week," said Jones. Idle has been hiking and running. Cleese has opted for "sleeping more," while Palin is enduring "a punishing schedule of lying down and watching television."

This may be the end of the road for Monty Python, but none of its members plans to retire. Upcoming projects include a memoir from Cleese and a movie by Jones based on Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker Suite."

"I think of it as a pre-posthumous memorial service," Gilliam said of the last bow.

"Preposterous?" Palin chipped in. The Pythons still slip seamlessly into affectionate banter when they are together.

Mortality is just another thing to be laughed at. The show is titled "One Down, Five to Go" in honor of the sixth Python, Graham Chapman. He died of cancer in 1989 but will appear onscreen.